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In this fun Christmas tutorial suitable for beginners in Maya we create a stylized cartoon version of Santa. We model out the main shapes with NURBS spheres and cylinders so if you don't know much about sculpting on NURBS geometry this is a good place to get started.

Because NURBS deform along the whole curve when you move individual points on the geometry they're excellent when you want to generate the shapes on a cartoon character quickly and you can save yourself some time by incorporating this technique into your workflow rather than use polygon based geometry during the initial stage.

You'll learn how to work with CV's and hulls during the sculpting process and insert isoparms for extra resolution in areas that require a higher level of detail. When we've created the main form for the body and head we convert our NURBS geometry to polygons to create the extreme facial features of this character and also do some subdivision sculpting for rounding out the finer details.

Creating Stylized Cartoon Characters

Organic Modeling for Beginners

Sculpting with NURBS in Maya

Polygon Modeling Tools

Getting Started with UV Layout in Maya

Cartoon Texturing & Shading

We then lay out UV's for the character and because this is not a high resolution model this process goes quite fast, also you'll pick up a few practical tips that will help you with more complicated UV layout. The UV map is then exported to Photoshop where we create color maps for a nice cartoon skin tone and the clothes. We practice using some different brushes to get a nice color tone variation that adds more character to our Santa, and add bump maps for a very subtle effect.

Length:
4
Hours
28
Minutes

Level:
Beginner

Software:
Maya 7, Photoshop

Format:
DiVX

Points Cost:
14

Price: $24.95

Lesson Breakdown

Lesson 1: Modeling Body & Head

Lesson 2: Modeling Facial Features

Lesson 3: Modeling Shoes & Refining Body

Lesson 4: Modeling Hands/Hat/Hair

Lesson 5: UV Layout Head

Lesson 6: UV Layout Body

Lesson 7: Color Maps

Lesson 8: Bump & Specular Maps

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Individual Lesson Download

Cartoon Character Creation - Santa

Credits

Length

Size

Download Lesson Pack 0

0

0
Mins

2
MB

Download Lesson Pack 1

1

26
Mins

66
MB

Download Lesson Pack 2

1

38
Mins

95
MB

Download Lesson Pack 3

2

23
Mins

57
MB

Download Lesson Pack 4

2

42
Mins

103
MB

Download Lesson Pack 5

2

41
Mins

103
MB

Download Lesson Pack 6

2

32
Mins

81
MB

Download Lesson Pack 7

2

35
Mins

86
MB

Download Lesson Pack 8

2

31
Mins

70
MB

Totals:

14
/
14

4
H
28
M

663
MB

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SimplyMaya specialises in Maya tutorials. We offer over 1,000 individual Maya training videos, ranging from basic Maya tutorials through to
intermediate Maya tutorials. Our tutorials are created by instructors with industry experience and are designed to get you up and running in Maya quickly without making it seem like hard work.